The analysts’ top forty

On the left you can see the forty firms most mentioned in analyst research. We’ve looked across the Lighthouse analyst index reports to see which firms have the highest profiles regardless of industry. Click on the picture to see a larger version.

We’re sorted them from left to right in to show which have risen the most, and fallen the most, over the last month.

Across all industries, the biggest risers are Capgemini and Nokia; the two that have fallen most are Alcatel and Nortel. Needless to say, all these brands are doing well to get into the top 40; even the fallers are in a strong position.

There are a few specific trends which are worth mentioning.

Some of the sharpest falls are registered by telecoms companies. Seven of the ten firms whose profile has fallen the most are telecoms companies.

Very few of the giant services firms are in the top forty. Generally, services firms are surprisingly weak at their analyst relations: it’s surprising because they sell less tangible solutions, and their organisations could be expected to have better marketing communications. Indeed, my colleague Efrem Mallach is running a conference call later this month to discuss why many services giants are struggling with AR — and what a few high performers in that market have done to break out. Email us if you’d like to join the call.

Considering the weak performance of telecoms and services firms, the sharp rises recorded by Capgemini and Nokia are especially impressive.

Of the top 40, 23 are headquartered in the United States, where much of the world’s analyst research is authored. Non-US firms are increasingly successful in gaining mindshare with analysts in the US; indeed, our research shows that non-US firms are typically more candid with US analysts than are domestic firms.

There are a few surprises. Siebel is still in the top 40, even though it was long-ago purchased by Oracle. Some giant firms are not there, including AT&T, Cingular, Philips, Unisys and Xerox. Some buzzier firms are there, including Huawei, Capgemini and BEA.

If you’d like to get the top 25 for your industry each month, just drop an email to us at analysts at lighthousear dot com.